Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons and Happy Thanksgiving! Even though there
seems to be lots that we can be grateful for,
for our family, for food, for housing, sometimes
it's really hard to be thankful. There's also
lots that seems to be going wrong. So what do
we do in those times when it's really hard and
we don't know how to practice gratitude? That's
what Rob is going to talk to us a little bit
about in today's sermon. is from 1 Thessalonians
5, verses 16 to 24. Be joyful always, never stop
praying, and everything give thanks. This is
what God wants you to do because of Christ Jesus.
Do not try to stop the work of the Holy Spirit.
Do not laugh at those who speak for God. Test
everything, and do not let good things get away
from you. Keep away from everything that even
looks like sin. May the God of peace set you
apart for himself. May every part of you be set
apart for God. May your spirit and your soul
and your body be kept complete. May you be without
blame when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
The one who called you is faithful and he will
do what is promised. The word of the Lord. Two
summers ago, our family took a trip to Prince
Edward Island. And while we were at Prince Edward
Island, our trip happened to coincide with the
same time that Charlottetown holds its annual
Big Fall Fair, which is called Old Home Week.
And part of that event is that there is a whole
bunch of horse races that happen at the end of
this fair. So we hung out at the fair, but then
toward the end of the night, we said, well, why
not? Why don't we go? check out the horse races
here at the fair. And so we stuck around, and
in order to kind of make things a little bit
interesting, I gave each of the kids a toonie.
And I said that they could place very small bets
on the horses. And again, I'm not condoning gambling
in any way, shape, or form. But I said, you know,
and what we generally did, I don't know, is there
a slide there? Do we have a slide there, Liz,
to get us started? What we did was we usually
picked the horses that had like pretty good odds
to win. You look in the program, oh, this horse
is supposed to win two to one odds, right? And
so we made pretty safe bets throughout the night.
say that even though we picked the horses that
were supposed to win, we still ended up losing
most of the time. And it got down to, I mean,
sometimes we won, but we got down to the end.
Well, really, we were down to our very last toonie.
And so we said, you know what, let's do one more.
But this time, let's not pick a horse that, you
know, is supposed to win. Let's pick one of the
long shots. So we started looking to the program.
It was the seventh race. We were flipping through
and we found our horse. It was the number six
horse. And the odds of it winning at the time
were five to one, five to one. So we thought,
oh, that's pretty cool. If we put $2 down on
this horse and the horse happened to win, that
means we'd get a payout of $10, which sounded
pretty good. So that was a good idea. And plus,
you know, we actually also really liked the name
of this horse. The horse had this name, Counter
Currency. counter currency we thought oh that
sounds so so sweet right so so we went up to
the voting truck and we put down our toonie and
we said put it all on counter currency and printed
out the little bedding slip and then we ran back
to the track side right where the finish line
is we want it we didn't want to miss a second
of the action of this very last race now I want
to tell you that I told you that counter currency
Oh, by the way, it was actually harness racing,
not like horse racing, harness racing. Counter
currency started at 5 to 1 odds. But as people
make bets and as you get closer to post time,
the odds change. And there's a big scoreboard
in the field that tells you what the odds are
on your horse. Well, over the minutes that followed,
counter currency went from 5 to 1 to 8 to 1 to
10 to 1 to 12 to 1, 15 to 1. When the race began,
the odds... odds of counter currency winning
were 15 to one, which meant two things. One,
we're probably the only people in Charlottetown
who voted or who bet on counter currency winning.
And secondly, if counter currency were to win,
then we would take home a whopping purse of $30
based on our $2 bet. Of course, we didn't have
much hope. We didn't have much hope. Here's a
shot of the girls. This is after the first lap.
Now there's two laps on this half mile track.
So this is these little horses coming around
after the first lap. And I'm going to zoom in
to show you where counter currency is. Counter
currency there. Running dead last as predicted.
No surprise. No surprise. And obviously not a
lot of thankfulness. Thinking of Thanksgiving.
Not a lot of gratitude at this moment in our
hearts. But just when we were getting ready to
rip up our bedding slip. Just when we were getting
ready to call it a night and get out of there
before the traffic. I got to tell you something.
Something happened. I don't know what it was.
The planets aligned. The universe shifted. The
fates smiled on us. don't know but something
happened that no one could have predicted counter
currency started to make her move she moved from
the seven position dead last to the six position
And then she moved from the sixth position to
the fifth position. And then now they were getting
onto the far side of the field. Again, the last
lap, we couldn't really see so well what was
going on, but we could hear the announcer. The
announcer, counter currency. Advancing on the
outside, it's counter currency. Now in fourth,
I can still hear the name. And then as they rounded
the final bend and they were in the home stretch,
I realized, oh my gosh, this is going to be amazing.
We're going to make history. I pulled out my
camera and I said, we got to catch this amazing
finish. And I'm going to show you that finish
right now. And I want to just apologize in advance
for my ridiculous screaming. I got way, way too
carried away in this moment. But here is the
finish. It was an unbelievable moment. That little
horse that no one believed in, true to her name,
went against the current and came out on top
of the field. And here's a picture of counter
currency in the winner's circle. And as you can
see from the look on Petra's face, there was
a lot of joy. There was a lot of gratitude. There
was a lot of thanksgiving. She asked me not to
dwell on this slide too long. So I'm going to
move to the next slide. But the point is, we
ran up to the voting truck afterwards. And, you
know, we placed our little betting slip down
there. And they gave us $30 of cold, hard cash.
And we took that $30 and we went straight to
Wendy's. Because there was a Wendy's with it.
You could see it from the track. And we went
over there. And we've shot the works. We blew
it all on frosties and fries and stuff like that
to celebrate our historic win. Now, what is this
story even about? Well, for some reason, this
week, as I was thinking about Thanksgiving, the
name of that horse, counter currency, just came
to my mind again and again and again. Because
if you think about what does counter currency
mean? It means going against the flow. And in
a culture like ours, the currency of a culture
like ours is, you know, power and wealth and
influence. And to go counter to that, to be counter
currency, is to move in the opposite direction
of all of those things. And today on Thanksgiving
Sunday, I want to suggest to you that is precisely
what Christian gratitude is all about. gratitude
runs counter to our culture. See, society runs
this way, runs on comparing and competing and
complaining and consuming. Society runs this
way and says, you know, you don't have enough,
you need more. Society wants to break us all
down into winners and losers. But counter currency
running counter gratitude runs in the opposite
direction and gratitude says no no no we can
be grateful and we can trust in god's grace giving
us everything that we need now that kind of gratitude
is actually pretty hard to come by when you think
about it in our culture. It was also pretty hard
to come by in Paul's culture. Paul, who wrote
this letter to the church in the city of Thessalonica
2 ,000 years ago. People there in that city,
they were not unlike us. They too were trying
to get ahead. They too were trying to climb the
ladder, trying to win the race. And in those
days, in Thessalonica, there was this thing called
the patronage system. And the patronage system
basically worked this way. That if you wanted
to get a job, or if you wanted to get a loan,
or if you needed help in any way, then you had
to basically suck up to the rich people. You
had to suck up to the powerful people of your
day. And so for that reason, gratitude wasn't
so much. about being spontaneous it was about
being very strategic right you might say oh thank
you thank you thank you you're the greatest you're
the best but what you were really trying to do
is butter them up right you weren't you weren't
that because they might give you a favor later
on right you weren't necessarily feeling grateful
in fact you were just trying to survive right
and in those days life really was like a horse
race if you were one of the few people in that
culture who won then great you might be grateful
but most everybody lost in those days and so
real gratitude was pretty hard to come by it
was the counter currency of that day as well
now what i want to say is into that culture 2
000 years ago in thessalonica and into our culture
in 21st century mississauga paul said some pretty
radical words here's what he says he says rejoice
when you win no let me read that again rejoice
when everything works out for you no rejoice
when you come in first place no he just says
rejoice always Pray continually, give thanks
in all circumstances for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you. In other words,
Paul is saying, go against the current, go against
the flow, rejoice, just rejoice, pray and give
thanks. And what Paul is proposing here is this
type of gratitude that isn't based on luck. It's
not based on hard work. It's a gratitude that's
not based on your accomplishments or what someone
did for you, but it's based solely on the grace
of God. It's a gratitude that does not come from
what is happening around us. It's a gratitude
that comes from what God has done for us. And
that kind of gratitude, man, that kind of gratitude,
you can live by that kind of gratitude. You are
going against the current of culture. In fact,
N .T. Wright says to live that way is almost
to live in a whole new world, right? Christian
gratitude isn't based on luck. Thank you. It
is based on grace. And I mentioned N .T. Wright.
He said this. He said, where was it? Where's
my N .T. Wright quote? There it is. When Paul
urged the Thessalonians to give thanks in all
circumstances, he was calling them to live like
a brand new world. It's a world where grace,
not fate, not luck was in charge, and where gratitude
replaced anxiety as the true source of faith.
So listen, what that means is you don't need
to wait for your luck to change in order to start
being grateful. You don't need to win the race.
You don't need to win the money before you can
give thanks. You can give thanks right now as
an act of faith, even if you don't have rich
friends, right? Even if you don't have a good
job, even if you're out of work, even if your
girlfriend has left you, even if you're flunking
out of school, that is okay. You can still give
thanks. Why? Because you have grace and you have
Jesus. Gratitude is not tied to the ups and downs
of your life, to the wins and losses of your
life. Instead, it is anchored to the faithfulness
of God, which means this, that you can, in fact,
be grateful even though you're running in last
place. After that first lap, I have to tell you,
I don't think that jockey looked particularly
thankful. And when we were standing there on
the sidelines there, we didn't feel particularly
grateful in that moment. I know that we weren't.
But gratitude isn't something you wait to feel
after you win. It's something you practice when
you're still in last place. Because Paul says,
he says, give thanks in... all circumstances
now we need to talk about that little preposition
in he does not say give thanks for everything
but he says give thanks in everything it's it's
not like we're supposed to celebrate and give
thanks for all the bad things that might be happening
to us but right in the middle of them There is
lots to be thankful for, and that is a very big
difference. And I want to say, let's be honest,
there's plenty of things in our lives and in
the world today that we are not thankful for,
right? We are not thankful for sickness. We are
not thankful for job loss. We are not thankful
for heartbreak. We are not thankful for loneliness.
We are not thankful for family conflict. We're
not thankful for this, you know, broken world
that we see. But Paul says we can still give
thanks in those moments, right in the thick of
them, because even there, God is present and
God is at work. After one lap, you know, counter
currency was dead last. You could just feel like
the energy fading. I felt the energy fading.
But she kept running in last place. And there
are people here today who feel like they're in
last place. Some of you feel like you're financially
in last place. You're trying to stretch your
paychecks and it just don't stretch anymore.
Some of you feel emotionally in last place. You're
just exhausted emotionally. right? Some of us
feel relationally like we're in last place. We're
carrying with us hurt or rejection or something
like that. Some of us maybe even feel spiritually
like we're in last place. We can't remember the
last time that we felt close to God. And if you're
honest, this whole language about gratitude is
the wrong language for what you're feeling right
now. Paul is not asking you to pretend to be
happy. Gratitude certainly does not ignore the
real problems that we are facing. But it opens
our eyes to see that God is still at work in
the middle of all that. So Paul is not saying
fake it. He is saying, can you find God in it?
You know, Eugene Peterson wrote this little book.
In this book, he says this. He says, the mature
Christian is not thankful for suffering, but
thankful in suffering because he knows that God
is not yet finished with the story. So you see,
this is, I think, very fascinating. Being grateful
in difficult times is not denial. It's actually
defiance. It fights against the current. If faith
and gratefulness is a way of saying, I may not
be winning the race right now, but God is still
with me in the race. I may be running in last
place, but God's love, God's love has not fallen
far behind me. It is choosing to see God's hand
in the hardship. It's choosing to see God's grace
in the grind. It's choosing to see God's mercy
in the mess of our lives. And maybe that is why
the early church clung so much to this verse.
Because life for them was definitely not easy.
They faced persecution. They faced poverty. They
faced pressure. And Paul wanted them to know
that gratitude is not reserved for the winner's
circle. It is for the faithful people in the
midst of the struggle. And I can almost picture
some of those early Christians gathering in homes
with so little material blessings, and yet there
they were giving thanks that God, not giving
thanks for what they were suffering, but giving
thanks that God was near. And what they were
doing is they were learning a lesson that we
too need to learn, and that is that even in last
place, God is still running the race with us.
Even in last place, the race isn't over yet.
I guarantee you after that first lap, a lot of
people were ready to tear up their slips on a
counter currency. There were lots of cheers for
the horses that were leading. There were not
many cheers for the horses that were behind.
And certainly I think we were the only family
cheering for counter currency. Why were we cheering?
It's because we were hoping. And we were believing
that there was more to come. And that's what
gratitude does. It cheers before the finish line.
It says, God, I want to thank you right here.
Not because I'm winning, but because you're still
running with me. And God, I know that you specialize
in come from behind wins. And God, you can take
something that looks like a defeat and you can
turn it into a victory. Now you might say, well,
what do you mean by that? Well, look what Paul
says. He says, give thanks in all circumstances.
And then he says, for this is the will of God
for you in Christ Jesus. What does that mean?
Isn't that just Paul attacking on a nice sounding
religious ending to a very famous piece of scripture?
No, this is the reason you can give thanks in
all circumstances because of Christ Jesus, right?
Our gratitude is not grounded in luck. Or in
circumstance, our gratitude is not like grounded
in optimism. It is grounded in a person. And
that person is Jesus Christ. So what that means
is we don't give thanks to God because we think
we're going to win in the end. We give thanks
because Jesus already did. You see, the cross
looked like complete defeat, right? The ultimate
last place. I mean, this was, the crowd had stopped
cheering a long time ago. The disciples had left.
I mean, 15 to 1 odds. Jesus had a billion to
1 odds against him. It looked like his story
was over. It looked like sin and evil and death
were miles ahead of him. And if you were a betting
person, you never would have put any money down
on the crucified Messiah. But, like counter currency,
God wins in ways that the world just doesn't
seem coming. And three days later, God turned
the scoreboard upside down and the tomb was empty
and Jesus had risen from the dead. And that resurrection,
it wasn't just like a comeback. It was a complete
reversal, completely counter, completely counter
to everything the world thought it knew about
success and winning and power and all that. Tim
Keller wrote that the resurrection means that
the worst thing, which is what? Death, is never
the last thing. And God's grace can turn even
apparent defeat into victory. God's grace can
turn the last place horse, the long shot, into
a champion. What I want to say then is that the
Christian life, I'm not just trying to propose
that Christian life is about wishful thinking.
But it's actually about resurrection hope. Because
life doesn't always work out. We don't always
win the race. Sometimes we don't even finish
the race. Sometimes the marriage does not survive.
Sometimes you lose the job. Sometimes the doctor
calls and it is not good news. But resurrection
hope believes that God brings life even out of
death. Hope out of despair and victory out of
apparent defeat. Gratitude, therefore, is not
pretending that we've won, but it's remembering
who has won. That's how we can give thanks in
all circumstances because we know that... On
our behalf, Jesus has already crossed the finish
line. And that we are standing not in our winner's
circle, but in his winner's circle as his followers.
So I guess I just want to say that practically
what that means is even though life for you might
not feel like a victory, and if you're still
in the middle of difficulty and pain, we can
give thanks. When you... When you face grief,
say, over the loss of a loved one, you can still
whisper thanks because death doesn't get the
last word anymore. And if you're facing failure
or you're thinking about some of the regrets
of your own life, you can still whisper thanks
because grace is greater than all your mistakes.
And if you're in the midst of uncertainty, you
don't know where your life's going to go, you
can still whisper thanks because... you know
your ultimate future is secure in Jesus Christ.
You know, when counter currency crossed the finish
line, we started to just cheer like crazy, right?
And that's what resurrection does. It gives you
reason to celebrate. Paul begins that whole passage
that Kevin read. He says, rejoice always. He's
saying, if you really believe this, if you really
know that God's goodness runs deeper than your
circumstances, if you know that resurrection
wins in the end, then your joy is going to be
the natural overflow of all that. And so no matter
what is going on for you today, today is a day
of celebration. And not because all your prayers
have been answered and not because all your problems
have been solved. We already talked about that.
But because Jesus is alive. Which means that
hope is alive. And that is worth celebrating.
I just want to ask you, how are you going to
celebrate that today? You know, it's Thanksgiving,
and normally we have these big Thanksgiving celebrations
this weekend, which is great. I just want to
tell you, your celebration does not have to be
big and fancy. I mean, after Arwen, we took 30
bucks and we went to Wendy's. And I still remember
sitting there with Sally and the girls, and I
just remember, you know, eating the fries and
the Frosties and thinking, man, I'm so grateful.
This is so wonderful. It wasn't fancy, but it
was joyful. And that is something that gratitude
does. Gratitude takes those ordinary moments
of your life, just the ordinary moments, and
makes them holy, makes them supercharged with
joy. It turns the Frosties into a feast, right?
It takes the little that you have and it makes
it more than enough. And so maybe this Thanksgiving,
you're not going home to carve a great big turkey.
Maybe you're just going to be heating up leftovers.
And maybe this Thanksgiving, the table's not
going to be as full as you'd hoped. And maybe
there are people missing from the table this
year. And maybe your life this Thanksgiving doesn't
look anything like you hoped it would look a
year or two ago. But Thanksgiving, just remember,
it's not about... extravagance. It's just about
being aware of what you've been given. You don't
got to compete with Martha Stewart, right, to
celebrate Thanksgiving. All you need to know
is what you've been given in Jesus Christ, and
that is worth celebrating. Just in wrapping up,
that's what we do when we come here to the table.
uh every week i don't know if you guys know that
the lord's supper was called the eucharist by
the early church and the the word eucharist literally
means thanksgiving and what we're going to have
here does not look like much it's just a little
bit of bread it's just a little bit of wine but
what we're celebrating here is exactly what paul
told us to do we are giving thanks in all circumstances
You know, just think that it was on the night
before Jesus' death, when betrayal was about
to happen, when the odds were hopeless. He was
about to be dead last, Jesus. He took bread,
and he broke it, and he gave thanks. And then
he lifted up a cup of wine, and he knew what
that wine symbolized, and he gave thanks again.
Jesus, gratitude in last place. There's this
guy named Alexander Shmaimon who wrote this beautiful
book about communion. And he said that the Eucharist
is the revelation that life can be thanksgiving.
That everything in creation can become communion
with God. Your whole life can be Eucharist. Your
whole life can be thanksgiving. Because when
we live in Christ Jesus, when we see the world
through resurrection eyes, then every little
moment is an opportunity for thanksgiving. So
today, let's be people who are grateful against
the odds. People who celebrate even when we're
in last place. Some of you, you're probably leading
the pack. Others of us, we are limping behind.
It doesn't matter whether you've got turkey and
stuffing, whether you've got fries and Frosties,
whether you're laughing or cheering or whether
you got a bit of a tear in your eye. Thank God
for what you have in Jesus Christ. Because he
is running this race with us. And the race isn't
over yet. And Jesus has already crossed the finish
line. Thanks be to God. Amen.